Good ways to start attracting work

Getting work...

...this is a tough subject, people often have lots advice to give but its usually the successful ones who never take their own advice. But from my personal experience (its up to you as to wether you think im successful or not) here a few things I have done in the past.

Word of mouth - its a cliche but its true, this isnt necessarily clients but family members and Uni friends who cant take a job because they are busy.

Drive traffic to you website (a must) - posting on on sites not just design sites (everyones doing it) but on other things like craft fairs, business start ups etc.

Track where your website traffic is coming from - use google analytics if your a beginner - it will give you an idea of which portfolio websites are driving better volumes of traffic.

Make sure you have every free website portfolio account available and keep it upto date - try, coroflot, view creatives, portfolio city

Blog - I havent done this yet but am told its a good way to get your name about.

Write articles - dont be affraid to e-mail the editor of creative review or design week with a good idea you never know (I got lucky).

Get your work published in books - good level of exposure and people often reference these books when looking for a suitable designer.

Keep positive, give the impression to your first client that your a popular designer, dont look desperate and dont under sell yourself!

I have an article on the front page of my website about freelancing if your interested, hope this helps.

Top advice WIP!

Are you listed in the Freelance UK directory? It's free for freelancers to promote themselves..Freelance Services Directory :: Freelance UK

Also more info here: Graphic Design: How to find work :: Freelance UK

All I'd say is as a designer make sure your ads/mailers stand out visually (that should be the easy bit as a designer!), I still think DM is a good way to get your foot in the door, choose your mailer list carefully by doing some research on companies you're mailing...does their 'personality' look like it would be a good match with yours? Use that knowledge when designing a mailer, call to get the decision maker's name, get the receptionist to spell out any names you're unsure of (nothing will get your mailer in the bin faster than getting their name wrong!) and follow up relentlessly. It's a numbers game, so you need to keep doing this. Historically it took me 6 months to get a meeting by doing this as not everyone you mail (even if they like the DM) will have a project or budget at the time of receipt. So call and ask when that's likely to change.

I could go on and on...but there's a good chance you'll be asleep by then 😃

More stuff here: Marketing advice for freelancers, how to market yourself in the freelance marketplace :: Freelance UK

Hi guys

Thanks for the pointers, some great advice there.

Richard, I actually read that article in Design Week when it was published. That's what finally encouraged me to try and freelance. Before, I was toying with the idea but your article made it sound that with alot of effort it can be very rewarding.

With regards to the online portfolios, do you provide links to prospective clients or do people 'seek' you out? Also, would you these as an aid to your website or instead of your website?

Thanks again for your help.

Tim

Morning Freedie

Wow thats really cool, glad it helped someone.

Regards websites and portfolios, I would always suggest a website first and would avoid the freewebs thing as the ads really reduce the quality of a website especially as a designer. I only use the portfolios to track people back to my website to help with rankings and traffic. I tend to put just a taster of the work on the portfolio site to try and hook them into my website where I can express my style more concisely.

I have had work from these portfolios so I think they are quite important but would only email out links to my website as the design is completely mine rather than conforming to the layouts of the portfolio sites and these restrict your ability to express your style.

I see portfolio websites as nets, the more nets you have the more fish you will catch. Some nets are bigger and more popular than others but I believe in volume over quality.

Hope this helps.